The Physics & Aerospace Catalyst Experiences in Research (PACER) Program for
Minority Institutions Project Summary

The “Physics & Aerospace Catalyst Experiences in Research (PACER)” project is
being developed in response to science and engineering (S&E) workforce
assessments
by the National Science Board and other U.S. institutions that
attracting and retaining students into S&E careers is of paramount importance if
the U.S. is to maintain its technology lead. Further, to support a high
technology economic future, today’s students also need research experiences that
emphasize practical skills, techniques and methodologies that are directly
applicable to the development of future science and engineering projects and
products. Finally, the greatest opportunity to expand the nation’s pool of
technical talent will likely come from efforts focused on women and minorities.

The PACER Project
works to address these issues by providing an intensive 9-week summer
research experience program for teams (faculty member plus 3 students) from
minority institutions and continuing to partner with each institution for
multiple academic years as they establish a research experience program for
their local students. In this context, the specific objectives for PACER
include: 1) Attract students from the ranks of minorities and women to science
and engineering programs, 2) Provide students with a research experience that
builds skills, techniques and methodologies applicable throughout their science
career, 3) Establish a core of expertise at multiple minority institutions
around which a local sustainable student research experience program can
develop, and 4) Nurture and mentor these institutions as they implement their
student research experience program.

The immediate goal of the PACER Program is to enable minority
institutions to establish a research experience program for their students. In
many cases, the level of federally supported research projects at such institutions
may be insufficient to expose most students to state-of-the-art research. An
established PACER program helps fill this gap and provides the institution with a
mechanism for preparing and motivating their students to continue with an S&E
career. We expect that PACER will be able to impact about 5 to 10 students per year per
institution or about 100 to 170 minority students over the full three-year term.

In 2007, NSF funded a pilot version of PACER to test and evaluate some of
the program concepts. The pilot consisted of two summer programs (2007 and 2008)
and three years of academic year support (2007, 2008 and 2009) during which we
started three institutions (one in 2007 and two in 2008). The summer program
used established materials to guide
the teams while they built skills in
electronics, real-time programming, design and management which they will then
applied to the design, fabrication and operation of a small science experiment
that was carried to the Edge of Space by a helium filled sounding balloon. The
pilot was highly successful and we are now starting our second academic year
support.